1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for cleaning particulate materials such as soils which are contaminated with a variety of contaminants such as heavy metals, radioactive compounds and organics, often in combination, through a combination of leaching, washing, attrition scrubbing, countercurrent flow size separation and density separation.
2. Background Information
Contaminated soil is becoming a more common environmental problem. The contaminants can include heavy metals, such as for instance, copper, lead and mercury; radioactive species such as radium, uranium and thorium; and organics such as for example, oils, polychlorinated biphenyls, flue soot and others. Various techniques have been developed to remove specific contaminants. For instance, heavy metals are known to be found predominantly in the silt, humic or clay fraction of soil. Hence, they can be removed by size separation such as tiltable tables, concurrent flow in a mineral jig and chemical techniques such as the use of precipitants. The radioactive compounds are generally soluble and can be removed to a large extent by leaching. Since these compounds are often also present in the finer particles, the most severely contaminated fraction can also be removed by countercurrent flow size separation. Organics can be removed by washing with surfactants, thermal treatment or biological processes.
Special problems develop when the different types of contaminants are present in soil. Generally, biological or thermal processes are more effective for removing organics than washing. However, toxic inorganics such as lead or chromium (+6), if present, deactivate biological systems due to their toxicity and cause air pollution problems for thermal processes. In addition, thermal processes may mobilize otherwise fixed contaminants in the treated soil.
Radioactive contamination (e.g., uranium, thorium radium, etc.) can be removed by soil washing. Soil washing provides a means to process soils having multiple contaminants. The washed soil is accessible to further biological or thermal treatment. Inorganic and radioactive compounds may be separated from organics for separate sale or disposal.
Many soil washing processes are available. Most use mining equipment to provide intimate soil/surfactant contact. U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,253 discloses a process for separating radioactive contaminants from soil using a concurrent flow of water to float away lighter uncontaminated particles from heavy contaminated particles. The slurry of lighter particles is dewatered using a spiral classifier, centrifuge, filter or the like. U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,263 is directed to a process for removing toxic or hazardous substances, in particular organics, from soils and the like by converting the material to a slurry adding surfactants and/or alkaline agents, and concentrating the toxic substance in the liquid phase preferably with a modifier in a froth flotation cell.
Some of the limitations of the currently used processes are that they are optimized for removing only one type of contaminant or for cleaning only one type of soil, they are geared to cleaning the larger particles while concentrating the fines in a fraction for later disposal, and they often use filtration for water removal which is a capital intensive operation with high operating costs.
There is a need therefore for an improved process and apparatus for treating particulate materials, such as soil and the like, contaminated with mixed wastes such as radioactive materials, organics and heavy metals.
There is a further need for such a process and apparatus which separates organic and inorganic contaminants, thereby allowing for optimum disposal routes or post treatment strategies to be used on the concentrated contamination fractions.
There is also a need for such a process and apparatus which produces a high solids content fines.
There is yet another need for such a process and apparatus which is not capital intensive, is economical to operate and can be made portable for on-site treatment.